Thursday, February 03, 2011

Connecting Communities broadband whitepaper

The Connecting Communities broadband whitepaper will be launched with a talk by Dr Tim Williams at the National Press Club in Canberra at 12 noon today.

Dr Tim Williams

Dr Tim Williams, Director of consultancy company Publicani, is currently working on projects in both the UK and Australia.

Prior to this, Tim was Managing Director for Navigant Consulting Public Services in London where he built a team of 25 working on housing, regeneration, local government and education projects. He is acknowledged as one of the UK’s leading housing and regeneration specialists. In 2003 Tim was named as the UK’s Regeneration Personality of the year.

Tim was special advisor to the Rt Hon David Miliband when he was a Cabinet Minister for the Department for Communities and Local Government. Uniquely, he then advised all subsequent housing and regeneration ministers until June 2010. Having also been an advisor on regeneration in Wales, Tim remains the only person ever to have been a special advisor for ministers in both England and Wales. He is currently advising the Welsh education minister on the reform of the education system in the Principality. Tim has also advised the current London Mayor on the new design guide for London, the Chief Executive of the Homes and Communities Agency on the start-up process for the organisation with its £5billion budget and the CEO of Lend Lease Europe on the Olympic legacy.

Tim was a founding associate member of the UK Prime Minister’s Delivery Unit headed up by Sir Michael Barber. He has also been involved in ministerial review of public services in Wales.

In 2007 Tim chaired an inquiry for the UK’s Housing Corporation into the design of affordable housing in Thames Gateway which was published as ‘The Williams Report’. In 2008 he chaired a Ministerial Task and Finish group which led to the creation of the Centre for Regeneration Excellence Wales. Tim is soon to be appointed a visiting professor at the University of Cardiff in recognition of his contribution to urban regeneration.

Tim was Chief Executive of the Thames Gateway London Partnership between 1998 and 2003, when the Gateway, Europe’s biggest urban regeneration programme, become a national priority.

Tim has had a weekly column in Regeneration and Renewal for ten years and is now a regular blogger. http://regenwilliams.wordpress.com/. He is a regular public speaker in the UK and has been a key note speaker for the Australasian Housing Institute. For three years to 2001 he had a weekly column in The Scotsman and has been a regular broadcaster in English and Welsh. ...